


And Soon It Will Be Spring

by RedFlagsAndDiamonds



Category: Anastasia (1997), The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, Alternate Universe - Anastasia (1997 & Broadway) Fusion, Attempted Murder, F/M, Murder, Pseudo-History, Royalty, Russian Revolution
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:07:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25797910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedFlagsAndDiamonds/pseuds/RedFlagsAndDiamonds
Summary: Following the destruction of the Russian monarchy seven years earlier, unlikely con-artist Gaby Teller and her American wingman recruit an amnesiac factory laborer to pose as the vanished heir to the throne.
Relationships: Illya Kuryakin/Gaby Teller
Comments: 12
Kudos: 18





	And Soon It Will Be Spring

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by both the 1997 film and the recent stage musical, with additional details thrown in from historical research. :)

_… On ascending the throne at thirty-six, he took the Regnal name Paul III. Standing an imposing six feet three inches, thick trunked, and bearded, the tsar lent a physical embodiment to his heavy-handed grasp on the empire. Within six months of the coronation thirty-seven edicts laid down by his father as conditional placations to the affronted Duma and peasantry councils were reversed, including reinstatement of censorship, dissolution of the public universities, and the revoke of general licensing to the public tradesmen._

_On June tenth, the German princess Kristiana Marie Viktoria arrived in St. Petersburg ostensibly to visit with her sister, the Grand Duchess Natasha Fedorevna. More recent allegations by extended family members suggest that Fredrick of Germany may have possessed higher ambitions for his youngest daughter, which he intended to play out through distant communication. His plans, if such existed, proved successful when Paul - already hopelessly besotted with the golden-haired, cherubic Kristiana - formally offered marriage within two weeks. The wedding took place in the Kremlin of Moscow, following the bride’s conversion to Orthodoxy under the name Katerina Fedorevna._

_The lovers had a game. With the precious stones set into their regnal and wedding rings, they carved affectionate pet names and the other’s initials into the windows of various state rooms and their private apartments. This practice was maintained until the end of their lives. The glass panes of the Great Palace at Tsarskoe Selo still bear their messages of love._

_Initial transitions to the Russian court proved rocky, as the conservative aristocratic base voiced objections to Katerina’s insistence on integrating her own retainers from the palace at Schonbrun. After several interviews involving the Dowager Empress Olga Alexeichnia and the Palace Chancellor, a compromise was reached and the Tsarina was permitted three unmarried ladies in waiting, as well as an accountant, her personal physician, and the latter’s expectant wife._

_After rampant speculation, the imminent arrival of the Imperial couple’s first child was publicly announced in October, approximately one year to the day of the royal marriage. Baptismal gifts poured in from across the empire and the neighboring European states, ranging from the breathtaking (an embroidered christening cushion trimmed in seventeenth century lace from the court of Bavaria) to the ridiculous (a paper of straight pins.) When reports came that the empress had begun labor a week earlier than anticipated following severe abdominal pain, candlelit vigils were held while the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg celebrated a liturgy in the Palace chapel._

_The festivities were called to an abrupt halt when the Grand Duchess Irina Paulievna was born on June first at 9:26 PM, premature and decidedly female._

_The court and extended family made no attempt to conceal their disappointment, and the increased pressure for a male heir left the Tsarina often depressed and listless. She became known to shut herself in her boudoir - wallpapered, upholstered, and furnished in powder blue - and not emerge for days at a time, except to receive official guests._

_When Katerina became pregnant again in January, she was escorted by her husband on a pilgrimage to the Sarov Monastery, where they prayed beside the relics of the Holy Seraphim._

_After a difficult labor, during which three bishops were assembled to offer the communion to both mother and child if need be, the Tsarevich was born on September twenty-fifth at 2:54 AM, two hours before his father’s return from Vladivostock by railway._

_The Tsar entered in his journal the following morning:_

“Everything had happened so remarkably quickly, for me at least… when I mounted the stairs at last it was nearly dawn. Found Kristi very well and sitting up. On the blankets in her lap she held our boy, who in prayer we have called Nikolai. Left darling Kristi to rest at seven. Have not yet slept; wrote a whole mass of telegrams. …”

_At birth, he measured sixty-one centimeters long, roughly equivalent to a three month old child. The empress dowager - then in the final weeks of her life - wrote admiringly of her grandson:_

“I have never before seen such a knight. If he continues so, his brothers shall be dwarfs in comparison to this colossus.”

_Despite the family’s hopes, the third and final pregnancy would produce another daughter, the Grand Duchess Sophia Paulievna. With Katerina already physically petite, and strained by the previous births, the family physician ordered that there should be no more children owing to the risk presented to the empress’s life. No exterior shows of grief met this news. The Tsar had his heir, and two rosy-cheeked daughters._

_The subsequent years would witness fluctuating support from the Orthodox church, as well as discontented murmurations from the leftists after further restrictions of former civil liberty. Fringe radicals - many of them young Jews displaced after Imperial edicts - voiced protests at the increasing power allotted to the crown, rising to a climax with the ultimate dissolution of the Duma in November._

_Based on ministerial advice, the Tsar relied for eight months on the effectiveness of anti-terrorism field trials to restrain the growing unrest. These measures placed excessive power in the hands of military officials who too often confused cautionary measures with sadism._

_On the fourth of December, two eleven year old boys - Konstantin Grigorivitch and Nikita (surname unknown) - broke a window in a St. Petersburg bread shop and removed two black loaves. Later reports that one or both came from insolvent homes and were starving could not be confirmed. Passersby claimed that a nearby guardsman fired a warning before shooting Grigorivitch in the shoulder. He bled to death within fifteen minutes. Nikita escaped and could not be located afterward. Several standers-by immediately attacked the soldier in retaliation, prompting him to flee to the nearby guardhouse - whether the explosion of the powder magazine was an ill-timed accident or a deliberate act of sabotage is unknown. Twelve guards and thirty two civilians were killed in the blast._

_Ill-substantiated rumors swept the city that unarmed peasants had been murdered by the Royal Guard. Within six hours a crowd of two thousand, four hundred rioters had gathered in the streets. Two days later the number had swelled to over seven thousand as revolutionary parties from Moscow and Yekaterinburg arrived to join what increasingly appeared to be a decisive battle._

_Behind the gates at Tsarskoe Selo, Paul was forced to make rapid decisions concerning the safety of his family. It was suggested that all the royals be evacuated west to Austria until the situation had resolved, but the Tsar refused to consider fleeing the empire. A counteroffer was made to remove the Tsarina and the three children (Irina age fifteen, Nikolai age fourteen, Sophia age eight) by military car to the Crimea._

_After an hour of debate and against the advice of several parties - including his wife - the Tsar chose to remain within the estate, in addition to the empress and children, ordering the protection of additional troops from Moscow._

_The following timetable of the events of December Seventh is based on survivors’ accounts and should not be considered unassailable._

_At 7:15 AM word came that the rioting had begun to calm. Katerina spent much of the morning praying before the icons, before resuming her Friday habit of personally roasting chestnuts and orange slices for the family and close servants. A kitchen maid recalled her humming folksongs. Her husband took the children ice skating on the Palace lake._

_Following supper at 6 PM in the Tsar’s private apartment, the Tsarina and children retired early. Paul remained awake at least two additional hours, as he was darning one of his wife’s stockings at 9:23 PM when a steward brought him his usual glass of hot water with a whole lemon._

_The first of the People’s Army arrived at the gates by 10:14. Early reports numbered the initial armed attackers at sixty-two - more fanciful accounts claimed as many as nine hundred. Logical guesswork would estimate thirty to eighty armed gunmen, accompanied by one hundred to three hundred additional peasants furnished with scavenged weaponry._

_At 11:23 PM the gates were breached and the mob flooded the estate grounds. Half of the park between the Alexander and Catherine Palaces was in flames within thirteen minutes. Within that time the crowd gained entry to the main residence, assisted by dynamite. Several riflemen were also admitted by the servants’ entrances._

_It is still unclear which member of the household, if any, woke and alerted the family. At least two eyewitnesses reported having seen Ana Teller - the wife of Katerina’s personal physician - leaving the Grand Duchess Sophia’s bedchamber at approximately 11:30, carrying the child in her arms. One survivor claimed she was accompanied by two other young girls, although their identities could not be confirmed._

_By 11:43 the tsar and tsarina had left the residence wing and were on the landing of the northern stair. Several stones were hurled through the enormous main window, showering the couple with broken glass. Witnesses claimed Paul threw his wife to the floor and shielded her with his body until the volley stopped. He suffered at least one severe laceration to the upper back, which left an indentation on the bone of his left shoulder blade._

_It has been theorized that their intention was to meet the children in the second foyer, and from there make use of the colonnade hall to avoid offering direct targets to marksmen as they made their escape. This cannot be proven, as all who observed exactly what followed are either dead or unwilling to relate the entirety of their stories._

_At approximately 12:13 an inexpertly created bomb exploded off the east wing, destroying the two east-facing walls and burying the adjoining corridor under nine feet of rubble. With this vital point of egress obstructed, the family would have been forced to retreat back to their personal quarters, bringing them directly into the path of a scavenging party who had entered via a shattered window._

_The alarm was raised instantly. At least three peasants fell upon the tsar, who, despite being weakened by blood loss from the wound to his spine, likely threw them off easily. However, the inescapable finality of the approaching moments must have been clear to Paul, who ordered his wife and children to the adjacent chamber. Katerina hid the children under an overturned screen and returned to her husband. The exact sequence of events is unknown, but in all likelihood Paul was already half dead at this time from a severe blow to the neck, which fractured several vertebrae. The tsar was bayoneted in the chest and lower back at least eight times, and ultimately killed by two shots to the head. Modern forensics indicate his wife was beaten for a maximum of ten minutes, prior to being shot in the lower abdomen. Medical analysis suggests that this injury was not immediately fatal, and death likely resulted from exsanguination._

_It is probable that the Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses witnessed their parents’ murder, prior to being discovered._

_Nikolai was apparently killed instantly by a single shot to the anterior of the skull - it is likely he was positioned on his knees, facing a wall. Perhaps he prayed. Eight year old Sophia recieved no less than eleven bayonet wounds to her chest and trunk, finally killed when a bullet was lodged in her esophagus._

_Prior to 1926, a corpse with three bullets discovered in the brain pan and a fractured jaw was assumed to be that of Irina Paulievna._

_Unsubstantiated rumors claim that in the early hours of December 8th, two young people matching the descriptions of the Tsar’s eldest children were seen attempting to board the last cargo train out of the city - along with approximately six hundred other aristocrats, courtiers, and royal retainers fleeing the Palace. Of the three hundred passengers who managed to board, nearly three quarters of that number were killed when the train derailed at 4:19 AM, sixty miles outside of the city, likely due to unstable weight distribution following overcrowding and the unsafe speeds undertaken by panicked engineers._

_Following the short-lived recapture of Tsarskoe Selo, the Moscow regiments discovered a mound of earth and ash containing human and animal remains as well as trace elements of sulphuric acid. From the bones uncovered physicians were able to assemble four complete and six partial skeletons. Of this number only three were male, being aged at approximately forty five, sixty, and eighteen years old respectively. The animal corpses were ultimately identified as Kuryagin and Dolly, the family’s dogs. From this evidence, accompanied by the recognition by several surviving retainers of the tsar’s belt buckle, Katerina’s diamond engagement ring, and a gold crucifix chain, Army officials concluded that the tsar, his heir, and all the family had been put to death in the siege._

_Following a 1926 claim to confidential accounts in Swiss banking, a woman previously living under the pseudonym of Ekaterina Glebb was positively identified as the Grand Duchess Irina when several pieces of a matched emerald parure, sewn into the lining of her corset and which she claimed had saved her from the rifles, were confirmed as genuine by Russian expatriates, in addition to scarring on her left thigh which resulted from an accident on horseback. While she refused to confirm or deny the Petrograd Railway story, her hasty - and arguably foolhardy - decision to promise financial remuneration in exchange for the safe return of surviving family members led to widespread speculation among the European nobility, and growing concern for the leaders of the newly established People’s Government in Russia._

_The actual results of this particular gamble have been the subject of frenzied debate by historians, as all forensic evidence is inconclusive at best and the patchwork of existing story seems based primarily on circumstantial hearsay, more worthy of an internet conspiracy theory than historical record. However, despite the author’s skepticism on this point, the events as known to have taken place in the winter of 1927 are presented here, with the intention that the reader draw their own conclusions…_

**Author's Note:**

> find me on twitter @FlagsDiamonds
> 
> updates will probably be slow in coming since I'm about to start classes again, but please let me know what you think! ;)


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